A new study suggests that humans are not the only animals that display the feelings of empathy, Counsel & Heal reports.
The new research reveals that even Prairie voles are also known to console each other in their tough times, just like humans comfort their family and friends when they are hurt or sad.
The new study could lend better understanding to the way humans empathize.
Co-author Larry Young, also a neuroscientist at Emory, said that many of the behaviors considered to be uniquely human are capable of revealing themselves, by natural selection, in animals without complex cognitive abilities, according to Popular Science.
He added, "This does not mean animals experience empathy in the same way we do, but the basic foundation for empathy and consolation may be present in many more species than once thought."
For the study, James Burkett, a neuroscience graduate student at Emory University, and his colleagues examined a prairie vole, a species that is considered to be a close relative of a rat.
Burkett and other researchers paired several prairie voles side-by-side in different cages. First the "demonstrator" was removed from the "observer". Then the "demonstrators" were subjected to mild electric shocks on their feet for half a second or left alone.
The researchers observed that after being reunited, observer voles spent a lot more time licking and grooming their demonstrator partners when they'd been shocked than when they'd simply been separated.
Observers also noted their attention for upset mates and siblings, but not strangers.
The researchers also found they could turn consolation behaviors off by injecting voles with a drug to suppress oxytocin, the so-called "love hormone".
After the experiment, the researchers at Emory were able to tell that a part of vole's brain, anterior cingulate cortex, is the same as humans. It is this part that is related to the empathy like emotions.
They also release oxytocin, a hormone known in humans for maternal care and bonding.
"[T]he confirmed absence of consolation in the closely related meadow vole and in most macaques [a socially adept monkey species] shows that consolation behavior emerges only under particular social and evolutionary conditions," the researchers write, according to Pacific Standard.
"Understanding the neurobiology of oxytocin-dependent consolation behavior in prairie voles may help us to understand the diverse deficits in detecting and responding to the emotions of others that are present in many psychiatric conditions, including autism, schizophrenia, and psychopathy."
Researchers discovered in 1979 that chimpanzees also offer consolation and care to each other after being attacked. Dogs also understand their masters and so do ravens and elephants.
